Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Leader back to the House. I want to reflect on the Ceann Comhairle's event on Monday last on an inclusive Parliament. I was proud to serve on the family friendly forum for an inclusive Parliament and want to commend the Ceann Comhairle on organising the event. We really need to look at our own House as well. Seanad reform is directly linked to a greater gender balance in this House. There are 43 Members elected through panels and nominating bodies, where they have more than one nomination, should nominate with gender balance in mind. We could look at more radical reform, including looking at the internal and external panels to address the issue of gender balance. Obviously, nine of the current 11 Taoiseach's nominees are women but that should not be left to the whim of the Taoiseach. It should be standard that we address diversity and gender balance with the Taoiseach's nominees. Again, I call on the Government to get on board with Seanad reform.

At a meeting of the Joint Committee on Gender Equality this morning, we discussed the fact that incentives need to be put in place so that quotas can be introduced at local government level. Serious work needs to be done to achieve a greater gender balance on local councils.

In conclusion, comments were made earlier today about the Tavistock clinic that Irish families with trans and gender diverse children have attended. It is not the service itself that was deemed unsafe by the independent review undertaken by Dr. Cass. The problem was that the queues were too long. The waiting times and the delays of up to three years were considered excessive. Two new regional centres are being created but I want healthcare to be provided for young people and their families at home. It is atrocious that we continue to send people abroad for services that we cannot provide here in Ireland.